Your TR Source
President Roosevelt encloses the letters from Acting Secretary of the Navy Truman Handy Newberry and Representative John W. Weeks for Edmonia Mason McClurg. Although Roosevelt agrees with the Navy Department’s decision, he acknowledges that they should never have agreed to put in the window.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-03
Theodore Roosevelt is glad Joseph Benson Gilder is with Hornblower and Weeks and wishes him luck.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-22
Theodore Roosevelt warns Henry Cabot Lodge not to trust Charles Howard Thompson. While Roosevelt agrees that Thompson is a vigorous and interesting man, Roosevelt thinks Thompson has led a rebellious career in the Progressive Party. Roosevelt is pleased with what Lodge said about John W. Weeks, but he wishes Weeks was not opposed to women’s suffrage.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-07-10
Theodore Roosevelt does not believe the Massachusetts Progressive Party will run a separate ticket this year and he hopes the Republicans will have a candidate the Progressives can support. Roosevelt regretted to hear that Senator John W. Weeks was not well received by Progressives in the West and appeared as a “regular reactionary stand-pat.” Fifteen years of peace propaganda has taken effect and it will take years to reverse.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-06-29
Theodore Roosevelt likes Senator John W. Weeks, but Weeks and his speeches were not well received in the West. Roosevelt believes it will be difficult to convince Progressives to support Republicans in upcoming elections. He views the Progressive Party of 1912 as representing the goal he has always sought, applying the principles of Abraham Lincoln to the 20th century. Roosevelt does not want to go back on those principles.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-06-23
Theodore Roosevelt writes to Victor Murdock about recent statements made in newspapers that Roosevelt would “support Weeks or Root” for President, some of which cite Murdock as the source. Roosevelt dismisses this and tells Murdock that he made it clear to Senator Jonathan Bourne that he stands for the same principles that he did in 1912.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-05-03
President Roosevelt has recently spoken with John Callan O’Laughlin about possibly appointing him Assistant Secretary of State, and that O’Laughlin believed that when William H. Taft was inaugurated as president he “would ‘see what could be done about retaining him.'” Roosevelt informed O’Laughlin that he was mistaken, and that while he would be pleased to appoint him, it would be with the understanding that it would only be until March 4, 1909. Roosevelt has spoken with Philander C. Knox, and is confident that he will accept the position of Secretary of State in Taft’s cabinet. Roosevelt additionally discusses a possible appointment of Beekman Winthrop. In a postscript, Roosevelt mentions a rumor that Taft is considering appointing John W. Weeks instead of George von Lengerke Meyer to a cabinet position, which Roosevelt advises Taft against doing.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-15
John Callan O’Laughlin informs Theodore Roosevelt that John M. Harlan, a previously outspoken critic of Roosevelt, would support him if he were to run for re-election. Many other Republicans have also inquired about whether Roosevelt will seek re-election. O’Laughlin requests that Roosevelt publicly reject Secretary of State Robert Lansing’s treaty with Latin America that would include territorial integrity and prohibitions on shipments of munitions. O’Laughlin fears that this would keep the United States from acquiring any more territory in the future and would have a detrimental effect on relationship between the United States and South American countries.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1916-01-24
John Burroughs appeals to Theodore Roosevelt for help in getting the McClean Migratory Bird Bill through the House. It has already passed unanimously through the Senate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1913-02-25
President-Elect Taft tells President Roosevelt that he is correct in his understanding that Taft has no objections to John Callan O’Laughlin being appointed Assistant Secretary of State, with the understanding that his term would end on March 4, 1909. Taft will likely need to appoint someone to the position of Assistant Secretary of State who would be able to handle the social side of the office. Taft assuages Roosevelt’s worry about rumors that he is considering appointing John W. Weeks to a position, and mentions the “necessity of listening with bended ear to many suggestions without the slightest intention of complying with them.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-16
Senator Lodge writes to President Roosevelt to express his dissatisfaction with the site selected for the new Appraiser’s Store in Boston, which Lodge and members of the business community consider to be too far from the Custom House. Lodge was anxious about Maine because of the feeling over prohibition law but was pleased by the results.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-12
Char Miller charts the long path that led to the passage in 1911 of the Weeks Act which provided for the purchase of forest lands in the eastern and southern United States by the federal government to protect the adjacent navigable rivers. Miller highlights the efforts of John W. Weeks of Massachusetts who pushed for the legislation as a member of Congress. Miller lists some of the provisions of the legislation, and he notes how the preservation of forest lands was extended to the Appalachian Mountain watershed in the South. Miller argues that combining the preservation of forest lands in the Northeast and South gave the legislation more support in Congress, and he describes how Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt tried to overcome southern hostility to measures by the federal government to purchase forest land.
Photographs of Pinchot and Weeks, two advertisements from the U.S. Forest Service celebrating the centennial of the Weeks Act, and the text of a speech by Roosevelt supplement the article.
An exemplary ballot of the Republican Party for the presidential primary of April 30, 1912, issued by the Taft League of Massachusetts. The ballot includes names of candidates as well as instructions for casting a vote.
Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation
1912-04-30
John Weeks is away, so Assistant Secretary Roosevelt encloses a letter of introduction to Weeks for use by John Campbell Greenway.
1923-09-21
John Campbell Greenway did not need to use the letter of introduction to Secretary of War John W. Weeks. He was in Washington, D.C., regarding a license to build a dam on the Colorado River. Rough Rider veterans are building a monument to Ted Roosevelt’s father, Theodore Roosevelt, in Cuba. Greenway invites Roosevelt and Eleanor Butler Roosevelt to attend the unveiling in February or March.
1923-10-09